Sino-Soviet Relations

In the late 1960's the Sino-Soviet relations had split due to ideological differences with differing ideas of the best type of communism. However this is not the only factor responsible for the deterioration of the Sino-Soviet relations as leader's personalities and national interest contributed to the split.

Ideological differences were responsible for splitting the two communist powers because they were critical of each other's communist methods. For example, Mao was heavily critical of Khrushchev's policy of peaceful coexistence as it sought better relations with the USA. To Mao, he saw peaceful coexistence as Khrushchev's way of accepting capitalism, this demonstrates how differences on both foreign policy and political ideas would cause a larger split between the two nations. Mao also believed Khrushchev's plans for destalinization was betrayal of Lenin and that he wasn't a real communist. Khrushchev was also critical of Mao's domestic policies such as the 'great leap forward' and the Chinese plans to industrialize by having a steel furnace in every back yard of China. Khrushchev's discredit of domestic policies lead Mao to believe that the USSR didn't want to see china develop into a better country. It was clear that neither nations agreed on the direction of a communist nation. This would mean that a split was inevitable; they were not striving for the same goal.

Personalities of leaders were responsible for reinforcing the rift in Sino-soviet relations in the 1960's. Both leaders clashed because they were in competition to be the better communist. Mao believed that after the death of Stalin that he would have a higher superiority amongst other communist leaders, yet when Khrushchev came in to power this didn't go as Mao planned. Mao didn't have the same respect for Khrushchev as he did for Stalin which made it easier for the Sino soviet split to happen due to the lack of team work that the communist powers had. The Sino-Soviet split came from the competition between the leaders, for example Khrushchev felt that Mao was trying to challenge the USSR as the superior communist country when he encouraged Yugoslavia and Albania to have greater autonomy from Moscow, as a revolutionist Mao believed that this was a way for these countries to prove themselves as communists, Khrushchev didn't see it this way which led to disagreement. Further personality clashes lead to the Sino-soviet due to the way Khrushchev was patronising Mao. An example of Khrushchev being patronising was when he removed his experts that were helping Mao plan the great leap forward, this suggested that china can't be great with out the help of Russia. Personality of the leaders was responsible for the split of Sino-soviet relations in the late 1960s because their personal clashes caused a rift in the relationship; they were trying to outdo each other instead of work together. They was now in competition rather than being team mates against capitalism.

National interests were responsible for triggering and thus cementing the split between the two communist nations in the 1960's. The foundations for disagreement